In Search of the Miraculous

mechanical forces there may, at certain moments, be a struggle against the intentional

opposition of fairly powerful forces though they are not of course comparable with

those which direct the

evolutionary process. These opposing forces may sometimes even conquer. The reason

for this consists in the fact that the forces guiding evolution have a more limited choice of means; in other words, they can only make use of certain means and certain

methods. The opposing forces are not limited in their choice of means and they are

able to make use of every means, even those which only give rise to a temporary

success, and in the final result they destroy both evolution and involution at the point

in question.

"But as I have said already, this question has no practical significance for us. It is only important for us to establish the indications of evolution beginning and the

indications of evolution proceeding. And if we remember the full analogy between

humanity and man it will not be difficult to establish whether humanity can be

regarded as evolving.

"Are we able to say for instance that life is governed by a group of conscious

people? Where are they? Who are they? We see exactly the opposite: that life is

governed by those who are the least conscious, by those who are most asleep.

"Are we able to say that we observe in life a preponderance of the best, the

strongest, and the most courageous elements? Nothing of the sort. On the contrary we

see a preponderance of vulgarity and stupidity of all kinds.

"Are we able to say that aspirations towards unity, towards unification, can be

observed in life? Nothing of the kind of course. We only see new divisions, new

hostility, new misunderstandings.

"So that in the actual situation of humanity there is nothing that points to evolution proceeding. On the contrary when we compare humanity with a man we quite clearly

see a growth of personality at the cost of essence, that is, a growth of the artificial, the unreal, and what is foreign, at the cost of the natural, the real, and what is one's own.

"Together with this we see a growth of automatism.

"Contemporary culture requires automatons. And people are undoubtedly losing

their acquired habits of independence and turning into automatons, into parts of

machines. It is impossible to say where is the end of all this and where the way out—

or whether there is an end and a way out. One thing alone is certain, that man's slavery

grows and increases. Man is becoming a willing slave. He no longer needs chains. He

begins to grow fond of his slavery, to be proud of it. And this is the most terrible thing that can happen to a man.

"Everything I have said till now I have said about the whole of humanity. But as I

pointed out before, the evolution of humanity can proceed only through the evolution

of a certain group, which, in its turn, will influence and lead the rest of humanity.

"Are we able to say that such a group exists? Perhaps we can on the basis of certain signs, but in any event we have to acknowledge that it is a very small group, quite

insufficient, at any rate, to subjugate the rest

of humanity. Or, looking at it from another point of view, we can say that humanity is in such a state that it is unable to accept the guidance of a conscious group."

"How many people could there be in this conscious group?" someone asked.

"Only they themselves know this," said G.

"Does it mean that they all know each other?" asked the same person again.

"How could it be otherwise?" asked G. "Imagine that there are two or three people who are awake in the midst of a multitude of sleeping people. They will certainly

know each other. But those who are asleep cannot know them. How many are they?

We do not know and we cannot know until we become like them. It has been clearly

said before that each man can only see on the level of his own being. But two hundred conscious people, if they existed and if they found it necessary and legitimate, could change the whole of life on the earth. But either there are not enough of them, or they

do not want to, or perhaps the time has not yet come, or perhaps other people are

sleeping too soundly.

"We have approached the problems of esotericism.

"It was pointed out before when we spoke about the history of humanity that the

life of humanity to which we belong is governed by forces proceeding from two

different sources: first, planetary influences which act entirely mechanically and are

received by the human masses as well as by individual people quite involuntarily and

unconsciously;

and then, influences proceeding from inner circles of humanity whose existence and

significance the vast majority of people do not suspect any more than they suspect

planetary influences.

"The humanity to which we belong, namely, the whole of historic and prehistoric

humanity known to science and civilization, in reality constitutes only the outer circle of humanity, within which there are several other circles.